BIO: Deandre Daniels was born in Woodland Hills, California (USA) and attended Taft High School in Woodland Hills, California before completing a post graduate year at IMG Academy in 2010/11. Daniels originally had committed to the University of Texas, but decommitted and committed to the University of Connecticut.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Deandre Daniels made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 22 years of age. He scored 19 points in his first game.

In 2014, the reigning NBL champions would see close to their entire roster run it back for a chance to repeat as NBL champions. Perth were able to re-sign both Shawn Redhage and Damian Martin (both 3 year deals) and have Jermaine Beal, Damian Martin, Matthew Knight, Greg Hire and Tom Jervis return. Although the team would lose star import James Ennis to the NBA they were able to replace him with another star in Daniels (14.8 points and 7.7 rebounds) who would sign as their second import.

This season, Shawn Redhage (11.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.4 assists) would relinquish captaincy to Damian Martin (6.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 2.7 steals), who recorded a nine rebound, eight assist, and nine steals effort (second-most single game steals by a Wildcat ever, behind Ricky Grace’s 10) in a early season win over Sydney (84–63) before playing his 200th game on New Years Eve, a win over Wollongong (86–77).

While Martin’s brilliance anchored the backcourt, multiple injuries impacted the team’s frontcourt, with Knight (6 games) and Hire (19 games) both several games and Redhage going down to a stress fracture in his right foot that resulted in him missing Perth’s entire finals campaign.

With the departure of Ennis, Beal (16.4 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists) became Perth’s main offensive weapon despite another slow start to the season. In the season opener against the New Zealand Breakers, he went 2-of-17 from the field, and against Melbourne United (Nov 23), he went 0-of-10 from the field. Despite this, coach Trevor Gleeson was confident Beal would deliver and then recorded some of his biggest games. These included a game-high 25 points to go with four assists and four steals in a 83–64 win over the Wollongong Hawks as well as his best two performances of the season in back to back games, scoring 29 points against the Townsville Crocodiles (Nov 14), then notching up 27 points against the Sydney Kings (Nov 16).

It was around this time Daniels too began to find his form. In December, Daniels was named Player of the Week after scoring a then season-high 22 points against the Cairns Taipans on November 28. On February 15, 2015, Daniels tied a season high with 24 points in a double-overtime loss to the New Zealand Breakers. A week later, in the regular season finale against the Townsville Crocodiles, Daniels had one of his best games of the season with another 24-point game, including six triples, plus 11 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks and 2 assists.

Beal finished amongst the league’s top five scorers through the regular season finishing with 450 points, leading the league with 69 made three-pointers, and won the club’s MVP award at the end of the season.

The Wildcats’ banged up roster still managed to finish in fourth place (16–12), with Matthew Knight earning a spot on the All-NBL Second Team, and Damian Martin named the NBL’s Best Defensive Player for the fifth consecutive year at the end of season awards.

Perth were then swiftly eliminated by first-placed Cairns in the semifinals (0-2). Beal delivered 20 points in game one and 21 points in game two but the Wildcats had no answer for the Taipans star guard Scottie Wilbekin. Wilbekin tallied 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists in game one (71-64) and then backed it up with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 6 assists in game two (80-68).

With Perth finishing fourth on the ladder with a record, the Wildcat’s faced the first-placed Cairns Taipans in the best-of-three semi finals, a series they lost 2–0.

In 30 games for the Wildcats, Daniels averaged 14.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.1 blocks per game. His 232 total rebounds led the league in that category.

Deandre Daniels played one season in the NBL. He averaged 14.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 30 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (817 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.